edge_pilot

My Feedback: (73)

Well this Christmas was kinda special for me in thinking back. It was 30 years ago that my dad got me my first R/C airplane for christmas, along with the radio and engine. It was a Sig Kadet Mark II, they had just release it a short time before. The engine was a Fox 45 BB, this was the super engine then for Fox! The radio was a Futaba 4 channel, of course no reversing, no mixing, no nothing, just 4 channels and NiCad batteries. For all you veterans, it was on orange and white frequency!!!!!!!!! And this will be a new concept for newbies out there today, I actually had an instructor teach me to fly, my older brother. [X(] I was 14 years old at the time and it could not have gotten any better than this. Since then I have continued to fly almost with no time off, just a little around my sons first few years. Now I enjoy the hobby with my son and brothers mostly, and now it is almost a way of life instead of a hobby.

Tell us alittle of how you got into the hobby!

STUKA BARRY

The Sig Kadet has been out since the 70's, not 30 years ago. The Fox 45BB is still a thumper even compared with todays engines. I learned to fly with the Futaba black plastic FPT4NL radio. Those are as basic yet most reliable radios. I think I still have one or two. I learned to fly in Myrtle Beach on 21st. Ave. back when a Senoir Falcon was a huge airplane. Damn I'm old, Thanx alot.....

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Hell, a Futaba on Orange and White is one of them New Fangled radios! I learned on single0channel escapements back in the early 60's.

My dad was in the hobby, so I just grew up with it.

edge_pilot

My Feedback: (73)

yea the Kadet has been around since the 70's, but the Mark II I had was just released at that time.

My original Futaba radio did have the steel case with the black gimbles, not the original chrome ones.

I'm not sure if you can say you flew planes with escapment radios or you just kinda guided them in the general area you wanted to go.

I'm glad people are joining in with alot of years at this, its nice to see.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

You just hoped they didn't fly away!

Those were the days when you really NEEDED to have your name, address and phone number inside it!

racetruck

My step dad got me into the balsa wood planes and free flight gliders back in 1966 i spent hours building i liked the gliders we lived in an upstairs aptment and i would open the window and throw my glider out the window then run down stairs and get the glider most of the time it broke a tail wing or something. we moved to miami and that is where i got my first boat with an enya motor and the hardware but i could'nt get the radio because a two channel futaba was like 500.00 bucks so i just worked on getting the enya motor broke in the book said break in was one gallon of nitro fuel and the motor still runs to this day and i still have that boat and motor

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

First model kit of any kind...1955
First balsa model kit...1957
First control-line model...1958
First RC model...1969...Carl Goldberg Skylane 62 w/Enya .45-III and EK Logictrol III 5-channel system (the one with the open gimbals and MM-3 servos).

edge_pilot

My Feedback: (73)

tell me you didn't build the EK Logictrol III 5-channel system also?

I flew control line plans when I was around 10. I was around them before that with my dad and older brothers.

I got my son into R/C Plans when he was about 6 I think. Now he is almost 22 and can fly circles around ol dad![:@]

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

And I'll bet ol dad wouldn't want it any other way.

Good stuff

landeck

My Feedback: (1)

I built and flew my first control line kit in 1953 using an OK Cub 049. Continued to fly control line until 1973 when I got a Kraft Series '73 seven channel system in a RCM/Bridi trainer 60 with a Fox 60 Eagle I engine. Still have both the OK Cub and Fox engines and they still run. That makes 58 years building and flying models.

Bruce

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

My first radio was a Berkly Aerotrol I bought as a kit in 1950.
I am 83 if anyone is interested.
I still fly electrics now and then

Roby

Can't help but to get in on this thread. Boy do I enjoy reading this stuff.

I broke into R/C in 1972. Did C/L and free flight for many years prior to 1972.
Oh for the good old days. My 1st plane was a Lou Andrews s-ray with a Fox .29 I flew
the covering off that plane before I finally gave it up. Then I used it to teach several people.

Looking back, I was one lucky individual and didn't even know it at the time. Two of the
hobby greats lived in my area and I was able to associate with ,and lean from them. The 1st
one was Lou Andrews and the 2nd was Erni Huber. I lew regularly with Erni until his passing
several years ago.


Oh to be able to go back in time.


Regards,
Roby

edge_pilot

My Feedback: (73)

Thank all you guys for posting, this is the type of stuff I was hoping to hear back. I am truly into the hobby, not just another RTF pilot of today and I just like to see the history of this hobby. I wish I could bring back some of the history to hold on to, but thats not going to happen. I have collected several kits and engines of my early years or even stuff my dad had, that stuff will stay with me forever. I have passed everything I could onto my son, now we teach each other. I have a new grandson which seems to have alot of interest in planes as well, maybe some day he will fly.

Mustangman40

My Feedback: (1)

Great thread, brings back great memories...

My dad also got me a airplane kit for Xmas, think it was back in 79/80, Falcon 56. boy was that fun building it and flying.. I to had orange and white futaba metal box 4ch, upgraded to a 6ch gold series and that was the cool in it's day, still think I have the transmitter.. Had a bunch of old Kraft stuff that we bought from a guy, man that stuff was really old back then, cant remember what happened to it...

I think I still have the original K&B 40 that powered my first plane and maybe a few of the oil soaked rubber bands that held on the wing..lol

I remember the first warbird me and pops built, a Topflite P-40 warhawk, the ones that came in the Red Box.. We took first place at a mall show with it, camoed it with monokote, olive drab and cream color. Looked pretty cool, might have to look and see if I still got pictures.. Never did fly that bird, wrapped it around a fire hydrant taxing it down our street, thought dad was gonna kill me, but I can still here him laughing about it.. Dad is gone now and I sure do miss him, thanks for the trip down memorey lane, good times...

I will see if I can find some old pics and post them up in this thread, anybody got any..

cfircav8r

My Feedback: (1)

I started building my first glider in '80 when my mother got a job as an engineer at Kraft. One of the other engineers gave me a Bridi Soar Birdy and my mother bought a 2ch, literally, off the line. In '81 I taught myself to fly it off the hills of So. Cal. In '86 I got a job in a toy store that had a real hobby dept. and really started getting into flying. I was eventually recruted to a full hobby shop and started to manage it by 1990. I eventually moved onto F/S and flew for hire and taught for sevaral years. To this day I still enjoy building and flying and am getting my kids excited about it now. I have flown just about every type of model but love scale the most. I still have my old kraft gold series radio and my first sport plane, a Midwest Das Little Stik.

scottrc

It is hard to believe that it was 30 years ago this year that I got bit by the RC bug, and boy was it a hard bite. I still have the issue of RCM with the ad of the Ace Alpha that I bought from Hobby Barn for $14, allowance money and a money order mailed to them and a three week wait; and the old Veco .19 with the missing needle valve and busted header the local hobby store gave me. With the help of my shop teacher we made a new needle valve and header. My dad got the radio, an Acoms 4 on Yellow and White. I think he got it cheap because I later found out the FCC would ban that frequency a few years later.

Maybe have to do something special this year to celebrate, like BUILD A NEW AIRPLANE

John Sohm

My Feedback: (9)

Wow, this is a great thread. My step dad got me into building the wooden stick and tissue kits when I was twelve. Up to that time I thought they were all plastic. First kit was a Guillow's SE-5. Fuselage looked like a banana but somehow it managed to fly. From then on it was love at first flight.

In 1976, I joined the Kingston Aero Modelers. I'll tell you some well known guys were in that club: Mr. Top Gun Frank Tiano, a couple Top Gun judges Bob Curry and Lee Henderson, Tim Farrell (god rest his soul) and I believe but didn't know at the time Chris Chianelli from DIY (also bless his soul). It was quite the club.

I paid $200 for my first radio, a used Royal single stick, 6 channel AM radio I bought off Frank Tiano. My first plane was an Andrews H-Ray with an Enya .19 I bought off my neighbor's brother at a yard sale. Got the .19 and an Enya .61 for $10.00 used.

I ruined my mother's iron covering the wing with some new fangled stuff called Monokote. Decided I was going to fly it before I left for the air force in 1977. My parents owned a little over 2 acres and I knew the basics of flight control so I took it off in the back yard. Believe it or not, I actually flew the darn thing around for about 8 minutes after I settled down. Felt like my heart was in my throat at first but it finally settled down. I think my blood pressure was off the charts when I was trying to get control of it over my neighbor's house. Finally did after two loops and just started doing racetrack ovals around the yard. All did not end well as I strained it through a 50 ft. maple tree when I tried landing. I've been hooked ever since. Since I was leaving shortly after, I salvaged what I could and gave the remains a "Viking Funeral" and swore I'd be back.

Tried building while I was active duty but never quite got into it then. Got out, met the wife, settled down and in 1986, rejoined AMA, joined Mid-Hudson R/C Society and been involved ever since. Life is good.

Found a picture a friend of mine sent me of my first plane I actually was able to fly and use multiple times (aka my first after getting out of the air force), a Midwest Livewire Champ. Unfortunately, all you see is me, no plane. I had a 6 channel Futaba AM radio in it with the green and yellow frequency flag on it, channel 54.

maukaonyx

Nice thread that is enjoyable to read. Lots of oldsters here, which I am too, so I'll add. I got started due to exposure to RC and free flight by my father during visitations on Sundays. Parents were divorced when I was one, and my poor hard-working mom raised me. Often during visitation, he'd take me to his house for a few minutes where I'd see his boldly colored tissue or silk covered planes hanging on the walls or ceilings in the back room. Made an awesome impression on me, when I was between 6 and 10 or so. At some point before 10, I got started by making a Fokker by Comet, maybe 12" span, and I covered it with red jap tissue. Flew it off my front stairs above the front yard which was a story lower, and the plane basically just glided, at a horrible ratio, but it was stable and straight, and I got hooked. Later my father gave me a Berkeley L-5 that he had painted red and powered with a Cox PeeWee .020, free flight. It had those Trexler tires on it that you inflated with air, then tucked the loose tube between the tire and the wooden wheel. We had it set to ascend with power in left circles and descend in glide in right circles. Wow, I can picture it now in Kapiolani Park (fronts Diamond Head), at the crack of dawn, with dewy ground, near the corner where the polo field was. That was when nobody was around and the air was calm. Got kicked out by the cops just a couple times, but back then people were more tolerable to this stuff. This was around 1960, and few years before and after that. We flew free flight gas and rubber, hand launched balsa gliders, and I made my first run at RC there, with an MRC Futaba single channel escapement system. Still have it by the way! Worked like a dog, and I had to chase the plane to most times get it to actually respond properly. Heck of a lot of fun! As time passed, I saw other flyers there with the awesome pulse and galloping ghost systems that seemed a grand step beyond escapement, but also cost big bucks to me. Hey, that escapement system cost me $40 back then, and that was huge for a kid of 10 or 12 living with just his mom (salesclerk at Sears) and an older sister. Anyway, that is the best thing my father ever did for me in his whole life...just expose me to his hobby of free flight and RC planes. Other than that, let's just say that to this day, I honor my mother on both Mother's Day AND Father's Day.

Oh, RC and how I got started! Years went by as I went through elementary, intermediate (they used to call it that, not middle, in Honolulu), and high school (go Kalani Falcons!), and I built and flew a bunch of mostly free flight stuff with Ambroid and butyrate (Aero Gloss) and nitrate dopes. I wonder how many brain cells I lamed with all those fumes. My Mom kept reminding me to open the windows or turn on a fan. In 69 I graduated and started UH, and I got a summer job. In a few years I was a grad assistant who got paid, so finally around 1972, I got a Cannon 2-channel system and a Midwest LilT glider ($20 back then) from Pete's Models at Waialae-Kahala mall. I was into RC big time for me. My cousin shared the love for planes, as I involved him when I got started at Kapiolani Park. He had my uncle to support his interest, so around the same time he got a Hobby Shack Cirrus 3-channel, but I forget which plane. We both built and got our planes ready at the same time, and we taught ourselves, yes we did, by slope flying these first planes with our first proportional radios, over the slopes of Enchanted Lakes, Oahu. SO many memories, so many good times.

Power planes came later when I moved to the mainland and couldn't find slopes easily, so I turned to glow powered RC. Never wandered from the hobby. I have almost the entire collection of RCModeler sitting under my friends house in Kaneohe, in plastic bins. I have sons 31, 28, and 18. I taught the older two to fly, and they love the hobby too, but just not as much as me. They still fly with me on many weekends...I think my wife is just a little envious while being happy for me that I get more time with the boys due to RC. The 18 year old can fly, but has not soloed, and just has too many other things he likes a little better than flying, such as sleeping in late, ugh. I've given him the exposure though, and he can take it up anytime he likes later in life.

Ok, there, I spilled my history and I hope someone else enjoys reading. It's nice to write about it and reminisce anyhow! Jon

Tmore

My Feedback: (1)

I'm just getting back in the hobby after being out of it for several years. I'm really surprised to see that it appears most people don't build planes anymore....whenI look in magazines or online for planes almost everything is ARF. That's too bad....I think building a plane is more gratifying than an ARF. I'm also pleased to see how far along electrics have come. Really disappointed to see that RCModeler magazine is no longer in publication. That was a fantastic magazine, I would keep the old copies and read them over and over again.

ajcoholic

My Feedback: (10)

I was well into rubber FF, some glow FF and control line when I was a pre teen, but I got my first RC set in the early 1980's (I think it was for Christmas, 1984 which would have made me 13 years old). I was already well versed in getting any Cox 049 or 020 running well, and I did have a 1950's era K&B .29 in my hands as well (on a CL plane).

My radio, bought used by my folks, was a Kraft 3 channel brick set up, surprisingly enough also on white/orange Back then, a CB license was needed to legally operate an RC set in Canada. Since my father wasnt into modeling, and I had no other friends that were either, I was left to my collection of RCM's and old AAM, FM and other magazines to guide me (as well as a copy of RCM's Flight Training Course). Went through a few ACE Whizards, a 1/2A Alpha, and some scratch built 1/2A models from RCM (Hornet, and SCooter MKII comes to mind) to try and learn to fly, but they were too small, fast and I am sure I had the throws way too far to make the planes even remotely controllable.

The fellow that sold the Kraft radio to my parents sold me (or gave me I cant remember) a Pilot QB15H, which was a 15 size high wing trainer. I bought a new O.S. FSR .10 for it, and that was the plane I really learned how to fly with.

A few years later when I was 16, I bought a used Futaba 6 channel rig (but it too had no reversing, no rate switches or anything other than the sticks and trims) and built a Telemaster 40, powered with the same K&B .29 which I converted to RC with a strap on muffler, and a modified OS carb. It was the real stepping stone to get me to where I would say I was a competent RC pilot.

All that, with out any instruction and no one to really help other than the model magazines and an undying will to learn to fly a plane. I did have one other school chum that had a futaba two channe radio and we worked on some models together. What a GREAT youth I had, let me tell you.... GREAT!!!

Never would I have guessed 25+ years later I would be flying jets, helicopters and indoor electrics - with computerized radios and model engines over 100cc's.... I remember when I told myself a .61 was WAY too much engine, and I would be happy flying .40 and under for ever HAH!

Love to recall those days... I really did have so much fun!

Here is a photo of me and my only other friend who had some models (he never did learn to fly though and eventually gave it up) and I... I am on the right, with my Kraft radio and beat up RCM hornet.

AJC

Joystick TX

I started building and flying rubber band models with some help from my dad when I was five years old. In 1948, I flew, sort of, my first control line model. It was a balsa Mustang with an OK Cub .049 engine. I did a wing-over and crashed it. I eventually taught myself to fly.

In the 60's, I got to fly my first RC plane, I think it was a Headmaster, powered by a Fox .25, with a Little Red Brick "Galloping Ghost" system borrowed from a buddy. My first radio was a kit from ACE. It was great. I also built the Heathkit and later moved up to a real "store bought" radio from Futaba in the early 70's. I only flew it overseas, that was before they imported them to the US. I eventually got one here in the US and caught a lot of flack from the Kraft and ProLine radio fliers. Still with the Futaba brand after all these years.

It has been a great hobby; I have flown in over 27 countries and met some of the best people in the world.

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

Man you guys make me feel like a newbee..

During the summer of 1984 I started hanging out in my neighbor Harland's garage watching him build airplanes and took a few trips out to the field to watch him fly..
He was a retired Lineman and WWII vet so I heard all kinds of interesting stories that summer.

At the end of the summer he gave me a wing he had on the shelf, an OS Max .35 R/C motor and a roll of plans..
It was the wing and plans for his trainer.. A Sterling Fledgling..

I guess he had made plans with my Dad because he all ready to drive over to the hobby store in Walla Walla and buy a radio for it..
That was one of the Futaba FG 4 ch gold box radios.
We ordered some balsa and by spring I had a fuselage built..

This is the Fledgling.. It served me well all through my training..


Lynn Cook (my instructor) teaching me to fly.. Summer of 85 I think..

Joystick TX

Those were the good old days when you could hang out with some old man in his garage and learn things your dad may not know or was too busy to teach you. I learned a lot from the old WWII vets.

Things are a lot different today. I have a great workshop and thought about having kids come over to learn about models or woodworking, but it can't happen, it is way too risky. I did some mentoring for some troubled kids and we had to have a 3rd party present all the time, we had a lot of trips and eventscancelled because the monitor could not or did not show up.

I wish more people would build planes from plans or kits, it is a great way to learn a lot about physics.

Now kids can't buy paint or glue, I've even had to show ID and I'm 68 years old!

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

My first plane was a Goldberg Falcon 56 followed by a Tidewater Super Pronto. My first radio was an MRC Mark 5 with servo's that went back and forth instead of today's circular motion. I still have the MRC radio and all of it's parts. I taught myself to fly in Tucson AZ. I then became part of a club in Tucson and shortly there after I moved to Santa Barbara CA. and was one of the founding members of the Santa Barbara Channel Modelers. We used to fly from a private airstrip in Santa Ynez, CA. that had cows on it that would walk 5 miles just to drop a load on the asphalt runway. As a side note, with the exception of all the Ugly Sticks that I have built over the years the Super Pronto was one of my favorite planes. Man I miss those days and the friends that I made. Good Luck, Dave

edge_pilot

My Feedback: (73)

This thread definately has alot of experience in it, I love to see the people who can remember when you HAD to build and airplane. Don't get me worng I fly several ARF's now but I sure have built alot of kits over the years, some I wish I still had, some I have bought them again just to keep around.